Hating on eight – Capaldi’s Doctor leaves me cold

I gave it four episodes, and in the end I’m going to have to admit that Peter Capaldi’s Doctor – so far – is not for me. The first episode I had to give the benefit of the doubt because it was a regeneration episode, one in which the characters were finding their feet and getting to know each other all over again.

The second episode was instantly forgettable – something about a Dalek? The third was more entertaining, but for the Robin Hood aspect rather than the Doctor being the star of the show. When he was shooting the arrows, I just thought… this doesn’t feel right. I just finished watching the fourth episode in the series, one which a few have claimed as one of the best, and it was fine, a bit tense, but ultimately not gripping.

I want to like this Doctor, Capaldi appears to be doing a fine job and plenty of people have lauded his commitment to the role. I’m just not feeling it at all. I can’t see any connection to the previous iterations, and there’s nothing captivating me about him. As I mentioned in that first episode review, he doesn’t appear to have a personality trait to latch on to. Except perhaps being mean to Clara.

I’m sad about that, I wanted this new partnership to work. I’m relieved that the relationship between Clara and this older version of the Doctor isn’t awkward like I worried it might be. They seem to get on fine. But for me, Clara has never had the same presence as some of the companions that have gone before, and if you combine that with a Doctor that is also lacking, then there isn’t much to cling on to.

So maybe I’ll give the rest of the series a miss. Maybe I’ll check back in if there’s another cast change or something mega to watch for. Maybe not. It’s okay, there are plenty of other things out there for me to watch. And from the tweets I’ve seen that say “thank god, Doctor Who is finally watchable again”, there’ll be more than enough viewers ready to take my place.